Sudan death sentence rooted in 6th century
1:36

Britain summons the Sudanese Charge d'Affaires over a death sentence given to a Christian woman for 'forsaking Islam'. Courtesy Sky News UK

news.com.au

20 May 2014

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Trying to save wife, unborn baby and their son ... Daniel Wani and his wife, Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, who has been sentenced to hang.Source: Supplied

THE United Nations is the latest to voice outrage at a Sudanese court order to hang a heavily pregnant Christian woman for marrying a Christian man and refusing to renounce her faith.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, a 27-year-old physician who is eight months pregnant with her second child, was convicted under the Islamic sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and makes conversions of faith punishable by death.

Meriam’s husband, Daniel Wani, was pronounced innocent but their marriage was revoked and his wife sentenced to 100 lashes as the court considered his wife a Muslim.

The pregnant woman, who already has a toddler son, was subsequently sentenced to death after being found guilty of apostasy (publicly renouncing Islam) when she told the court she was a Christian and refused to “return” to the Muslim religion.

“I am a Christian, and I have never been a Muslim,” she said in court.

“I was considered innocent and the marriage revoked — the revoking of this marriage means that my son is no longer my son and the one coming is not my son too, will not be my son — so this innocence means nothing and I will appeal for myself and I will appeal for my wife,” Reuters news agency reported.

“Martin [my son] and my wife, they are all in prison and she is pregnant — she could give birth at any time, from today to 1st of June, she may give birth. I am afraid that being in prison is dangerous for her so if they would allow me to take her to the hospital that she delivered Martin in — even if it was under the watch of security guards, I would be thankful.”

Wani, a US citizen since 2005, went to Sudan almost a year ago to arrange for his wife and child to move to New Hampshire, where Daniel Wani and his brother Gabriel Wani immigrated in 1998 after fleeing the war-torn African country.

In August last year, Meriam was arrested after her brother, a Muslim, opened a case against her and her husband in Halat Kuku Court of Khartoum North for alleged “adultery” under article 146 of the Sudan Criminal Code because of her marriage to a Christian.

Meriam’s brother said that she had been missing for several years and her family was shocked to find out she married a Christian as she had been brought up a Muslim.

Wani was accused of proselytizing a Muslim, and eventually authorities added the apostasy charge to Meriam.

Sudan’s notorious Public Order Court in El Haj Yousif in Khartoum North initially charged Meriam with apostasy and “adultery” (relations with her husband) on March 4.

Meriam said she was born to a Sudanese Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox mother. Her father left when she was six-years-old and she was raised by her mother as a Christian.

Gabriel Wani said the court has allowed Meriam to give birth to the child next month and nurse it for two years inside a prison in Khartoum before the lashings and hanging would be enforced.

Wani, who is staying at his family’s home in Khartoum, said he was being watched and feared for his own safety as well as that of his wife, son and unborn child, his brother said.

“I’m just praying for God. He can do a miracle. Everyone is depressed. You don’t believe it. It’s shock,” Gabriel Wani said.

Muhammad al-Nour, the lawyer representing Ishag, said his team were “proud as Muslims to be representing Mariam”.

Trying to save wife and children ... Daniel Wani with his wife Meriam Yehya Ibrahim who has been sentenced to death for refusing to renounce her Christian faith. Picture: Gabriel Wani/FacebookSource: Supplied

Sudanese parliament speaker Fatih Izz Al-Deen said the verdict is not final and is in the hands of the judiciary.

The verdict will go through all the judicial stages to reach the constitutional court, the speaker told Um Derman radio station, according to the official Sudanese News Agency.

No one has been executed for apostasy in Sudan since the Sudan Criminal Code of 1991 made it punishable by the death penalty.

UN rights experts voiced outrage at the Sudanese court sentence.

“This outrageous conviction must be overturned and Ms Ibrahim must be immediately released,” insisted the UN experts on a range of issues, including on the human rights situation in Sudan, violence against women, minorities and the freedom of religion or belief.

They stressed in a statement that under international law, “the death penalty may only be imposed for the most serious crimes, if at all.”

“Choosing and/or changing one’s religion is not a crime at all. On the contrary, it is a basic human right,” they said.

“The imposition and enforcement of the death penalty on pregnant women or recent mothers is inherently cruel and leads to a violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

Kiri Kankhwende, of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, issued a stement: “CSW calls for it to be annulled and for the immediate release of Mrs Ibrahim and her son, who is being held in violation of article 37 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.”

Katherine Perks with the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies, said the verdict goes against Sudan’s “own constitution and commitments made under regional and international law.”

Manar Idriss, Amnesty International’s Sudan researcher, told CNN: “The fact that a woman could be sentenced to death for her religious choice, and to flogging for being married to a man of an allegedly different religion, is abhorrent and should never be even considered.”

Britain has summoned the Sudanese charge d’affaires in protest at the death sentence for apostasy.

The political director of the Foreign Office, Simon Gass, pressed diplomat Bukhari Afandi to urge his government to do everything in its power to have the decision overturned.

London has already condemned Meriam’s sentencing as “barbaric”, while the United States also said it was left “deeply disturbed”.

At the request of Foreign Secretary William Hague, Gass “expressed deep concern at the recent decision to sentence Meriam to death for apostasy”, a spokesman said.

He “asked the charge to urge his government to uphold its international obligations on freedom of religion or belief, and to do all it can to get this decision overturned”.

US Senators Kelly Ayotte and Jeanne Shaheen issued statements condemning the action of the Sudanese court.

“The sentencing of Meriam Yahya Ibrahim Ishag is an abhorrent violation of fundamental freedoms and universal human rights,” Shaheen said. “No man or woman anywhere should be treated as a criminal much less sentenced to hanging for exercising the basic right of religious choice.”

Shaheen’s staff contacted the Department of State to discuss possible options.

Ayotte and fellow Senator Roy Blunt sent a letter to US Secretary of State John Kerry, urging him to take immediate action in response to the “outrageous” court ruling. Ayotte also released a statement expressing her outrage at the decision.

“The Sudanese court’s ruling is a grave injustice and a violation of the fundamental human right of religious liberty,” she said. “I urge the US government to immediately offer Meriam political asylum and do everything in its power to secure her and her son’s safe release.”

Pray for Meriam&#39;s release - a pregnant woman in Sudan. Her crime -- being a Christian and refusing to recant her faith. #SaveMeriam

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